Ila Solomon said husband Gerald Gavan's body was only at the couple's house for five days but a coroner revealed it was much longer

A widow left her dead husband's body decomposing in their home for nine months because she says he wanted to be eaten by the birds.

Ila Solomon, 54, is facing possible charges after the body of Gerald Gavan, 88, was discovered in their home in May.

She recently took a news crew into her home and pointed out the spot where the Wold War II veteran died.

She told newsnet5: "I just think that somebody who did so much for the United States should have the death he wanted, that's all. He just wanted to be eaten by the birds to be part of the cycle of life.

"Plan number two would be for me to take him outside or him to die outside so that the birds could eat him here, but that didn't happen, instead he died right there."

Following Mr Gavan's death she failed to notify the authorities, violating state law.

WRTV

She said that she left a side door open in the hope that birds would come into the house and eat his corpse.

She claims his body was there for five days but a coroner with the Lafayette Police Department calculated around nine months of decomposition and the cause of death remains a mystery.

Money continued to be paid for her head husband, but Solomon has taken out a loan against her life insurance policy to pay the money back.

A will purportedly to be Mr Gavan's says that he wanted a traditional ritual in which he would be left to be eaten by birds in India.

Solomon added: "I have kind of learned that there's a really big need for grief counselling and so I was thinking of becoming a grief councillor.